You mighty not be one of us heads but you know your theet! Five stars for no Donna made me laugh!
A Deadhead label is not a key to the 4th dimension's door. The door to understanding is wide open when you realize there was no such thing as a bad Dead show; just bad trips and cops, not necessarily in that order!

Listen here you goddamn deadheads...this is where it's at. Ratings from 2.75-4 on this tells everyone that you need to tighten your bong helmet just a wee but more...
Five stars for the set list
Five stars for the mix
Five stars for no Donna
Five stars if the two tone deaf regular commentors actually STFU
And lastly...
Five huge stars for Charlie Miller (Time magazine's Man of the year!!!)

Killer fucking show. Nuf said....

(Don't worry, I still love you goddamn deadheads...)

Night #5 of the 7 shows at The Academy. This ranks as the 5th best of the run. There's nothing that isn't played better elsewhere in the run, but it's still solid and a must-hear for fans of pre-Donna '72.

First Set. The first 5secs of Greatest Story are missing from the SBD and OFF. The AUD is intact (if dreary) for one of the year's most explosive starts. Note how after the solo begins Bobby repeats the first verse, for a cool version - not as monumental as 3/21, but different. Cold Rain & Snow is fully realized, completely played, and Chinatown Shuffle is the best version so far. You Win Again is downtempo, basic, but Pig was always so ready to deliver a Mr. Charlie; this one, for example. Jack Straw is still in its simplest version: will get better on E72. Loser shows that Susie isn't always sweet. Pigpen mentions Steely Dan to Phil (i. e. the dildo in Naked Lunch). Did Pig read Burroughs?? Bobby then mentions Vic Tanny, the '60s gym chain [the official release weirdly edits this intro to LLR]. For Looks Like Rain Jer switches to steel and Phil goes for harmonies with Bobby, boosting it. After average BIGs is the last Playing without Donna. This was a good month for these, and this one is too even though it's the 4th best of the run. The first measure of El Paso was not recorded. The official replaces the first couple seconds of the SBD with 9 seconds of 3/23. Like the set, Good Lovin' is solid if typical '72.

Second Set. First a [sort of] Spring Song tuning, then an expanded Truckin' that has an above average jam section, and is the longest to date. Not many passages of The Other One stand out, but I always dig a TOO sandwich. This sammy, with a M&MU, has delicious trannys. On E72, and later in the year, TOO would routinely surpass 30mins (even 40). Wharf Rat is very smooth, but I'm not sure the jam goes anywhere. Sugar Mag is uptempo but with no surprises - though listen for Pig switching from guiro to tambourine after 2:45. This is the 2nd The Stranger, and Pig builds it up and leaves it all onstage, prepping the song for E72. In the first minute of Not Fade you will hear drumming not possible in the two-drummer format. All players are great here.

1st Set:  C+
2nd Set: C
Overall = 2¾ stars

Highlights:
Greatest Story Ever Told - explosive start, different than 3/21
Not Fade Away - all players ride single drummer

SOURCES: The 133303_sbd_miller is the most dynamic and accurate SBD. Dave's 14 has the whole show, save a patched El Paso and the beginning of Greatest Story.

This is THE BEAST known as the Grateful Dead!!! Listening to this show almost made me feel like I was tripping!! What more can I say!!! I don't know how I've never heard this show? This is some of the best Grateful Dead I've ever heard. And I've been listening for a long time!!! When I heard the "Greatest Story Ever Told" for the opener I knew this would be a special show. But when I first noticed this show it was 'The Stranger" that caught my attention cuz I'd never heard of this song. And I've been listening to the Dead for decades & just now running across a song I've never heard of them playing before is kinda strange. But "the 2nd set" gets MAGICAL. That's the best way I know how to put it. If you were at this show & tripping then you probably had one of the best times of your life. I really think this show is one of the best I've ever heard. The sound quality isn't all that great but it's good enough to be completely blown away by what the Dead played that night. Barton Hall (or Cornell '77) which is what I use to call my cassette versions or 8-13-75 (One From the Vault) have always been my "go to" when I needed a really good Grateful Dead fix. If the sound quality of this one was just a tad bit better it would replace them both!! There is no way I can say enough about this show... just listen for yourself & you should hear what I mean. The jam at the end of Truckin, ,& then The Other One-> Me & My Uncle-> The Other One is really good.

Heard this NFA->GDTRFB->NFA on the SiriusXM GD channel on my way to work this AM and decided to check it out. Wow. The boys were really hitting on all cylinders this night. Probably not fair to give it a 5-star without listening to it in its entirety, but if the above, PITB and Truckin -> TOO are any indication this is an outstanding show. Thanks Charlie Miller for bringing this gem to life.

Another varied set list with a Greatest Story opener.
All the hard work from 71 and Keith
Stretching it out for Playin' and Truckin'
After RxR Blues Garcia leaves the lead vocals
mostly to Weir & PIg
ME&MY inside THE OTHER ONE,,,
They kinda space at times but when they jam it's blazin'
A very mellow laid back Wharf Rat
Nice spot for Sugar Magnolia
Two Souls in the final ballad spot.
NFA>GDTRFB>NFA

I just think the Dead in early '72 were neither as musically interesting as they had been earlier, nor as skilled as they would get later. Nor did they have a sweet-sounding sound system: they had a loud and overly clean system. Playin' is played full-throttle and loud, but musically it's a snooze. Amphetamine music. Miller's remixing is rightly praised for its clarity, but I think it would actually be better to add some warmth to these '71 and '72 recordings rather than make them clear: their sound system was too bright and clean to begin with, as they had very innovative (and wrong) ideas about how to amplify live music. They softened up their sound by '73, and turned into one of my favorite sounding bands. I consider the much-praised year-of-Europe-72 to be a formative, transitory period, mostly.

As someone who does not like the "Donna-ness" of the Europe '72 discs, I'm thrilled to get a glimpse of that awesomeness without her mucking things up!

Great show and another amazing job by Mr. Miller!

I could not agree with jpos more. This is where '72 starts sounding amazing. Cold Rain, Chinatown Shuffle, Jack Straw, LLR, Big Boss Man, El Paso and Wharf Rat are delightful, despite the themes.

Mr. Miller and everyone else responsible for getting this out is a godsend. What a fantastic show. Check out the Looks Like Rain (not one of my favorite songs). Great tempo and groove, a bit slower than usual. Phil instead of Donna on harmonies work really well here. The coolest thing is that Jerry sounds like he is playing the pedal steel, and it is perfectly magical for this song. I wish he would have played it more. My favorite version of LLR by far. One of the best Cold Rain and Snow versions as well. The entire show is strong. Phil introduces Keith as the new piano player. The sound quality is absolutely fantastic. I can tell that a lot of love and effort went in to making this possible. I love the energy here. The show is as good as any night in Europe later in the year. Maybe even worth mentioning in the same sentence as the Creamery gig.

This is a fantastic show and worthy of Dave's Picks.

I immediately skipped to the Good Lovin' to check out the mix. As someone who found the E72 releases a bit "Jerry-centric" I was pleased that the official release of this show had Mr. Weir mixed right up front where he belongs (particularly on this date!). This mix of Good Lovin' anyway seems a tad more evenly balanced than the official release, to my ears (Jerry isn't mixed as far back here as he is on parts of the official version). Different ... not necessarily worse or better. And there's some splice/hiccup on this version, too, I believe ...